Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Central Park Walk in New York

In the 1850s, realizing the need for a large public green space
for New Yorkers to get away from the chaos and noise of the city, the
New York legislature set aside a vast swath of land in Upper Manhattan.
Landscape designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux developed the
winning design for the park, influenced by naturalistic landscapes
which were popular in park design at the time. Any architectural
features and roads were to be visually integrated into the surrounding
landscape, to maintain the "rustic" feel of the park. The park was
officially completed in 1873, with more than 500,000 cubic feet of
topsoil brought in from New Jersey and millions of trees, shrubs, and
other plants laying the foundation of the park.
Through the early 20th century the park fell into a decline due to a
lack of maintenance, with dead trees, worn-out lawns, and much litter
and vandalism. The park received a major boost in the 1930s, when these
issues were finally addressed, but the park once again fell into a
decline in the late 20th century, becoming increasingly run-down and
crime-ridden through the 1960s and 70s. In 1980, the Central Park
Conservancy was founded under contract from the city to restore and
maintain the park. Today, the violent night crimes of previous decades
are all but gone, and common sense is all you really need to stay safe
in the park today.

Offline version of this walk for your iPhone you can get via PinMyWAY app.

PinMyWAY App

The walking tour planner for your iPhone.

This application is a fully functional tool to create your own routes with an option to publish them in open access.
It also provides ready-made self-guided independent walking tours throughout individual cities of the world.